ANBU: Healing the Wounds
by Rated NC-17 Superstar
Summary: After the SoundSand attack on Konoha 4 years ago, the ANBU have been stepping up and increasing harshness in training. Pessismistic ANBU soldier Yodamni Akira now finds himself training new recruit Haruno Sakura.
1. Chapter I

A/N: First off, why is there a dash between the A and the N? Authors/Notes? I have to choose between one or the other? And since I'm the only author, looks like I HAVE to write notes. Which is convient, cause that's what I'm doing.  
This story takes place about 2 years from the current Naruto storyline. Since obviously, I have no idea how the series ends I probably won't make too many refferences to the past. Besides, this is a current story; not a history lesson. So I doubt anyone will have to worry about major spoilers like ZOMG NARUTO IS SASUKES FATHER!  
Actually, I have no idea how that would even work.  
Unless someone was enough of a freak to rape a baby o.O and I think it would still be impossible then.  
Think about it.  
Could save your life some day.  
From like, baby terrorists or something.  
Anyways, the closest things to spoilers would be just minor things like ZOMG SAKURA HAS PINK HAIR!  
You know, the dead obvious stuff.  
Excpet it's not dead. Cause it was never alive. Cause it stopped breathing BEFORE it even STARTED to STOP!  
What's that do? Does it BLOW your MIND!  
I'll bet it does.  
Anyways, it's rated M for Mature due to Naughty Naughty language and eventual violent images of the mental variety. Cause I can't draw. Yeah.

Story: Like I mentioned earlier, it takes place around 2 years from the current story. The only character from the actual series that it features is Haruno Sakura. The other main character is a made up one. This of course doesn't mean other characters aren't in it. They may show up. Like the Godaime Hokage, obviously.  
Two years from the current story; back on track, and Sakura has just been accepted as a member of the ANBU Military Squad. That's all I'll say. Since I've been talking my ass off saying a bunch of crap no one really wants to hear. And by talking I do of course mean writing. Or, formerly writing. By the time you've read this, I'll have already written it. Yeah.  
So, umm, enjoy. Constructive Criticism is not only welcome, but encouraged. Anything for improvement )  
Also, some people may notice some refferences to games/other animes as well in the story. Point them out if you wish

-  
Basic Character Info:

Just a little basic info on the other main character, to help heal curiousity:

Name: Yodamni Akira Age: 19 (Born December 13th; on a Friday)  
Eyes: Left eye is yellow, right eye is red)  
Hair: White Height: 5' 7"  
Weight: 54.7 kb -----------------

Chapter I

It was a beautiful field. A wide and open one too. Nothing but high blades of grass and tips of flowers could be seen as far as the eye could see. In the middle of it all, Yodamni Akira was lying down, deep in the grass looking up at the clouds. Time wasn't an issue. Nobody was around; no more stupid people to deal with. Just him and the field. And it was warm. Nice and warm.

"Wake up."

He opened his eyes. No, not true. I'm the only one here. Only me and my warm fuzzy flowers.

"I said wake up."

The flowers and grass started to fade. The warmth started to leave. No, this is my field. I'm allowed to stay.

That's what he wanted to say.

It came out as "Urghh..."

Akira felt a sharp pain in his ribs. He startled up, now aware and looking around. His eyes laid upon the one who kicked him in his sleep and awoke him from his beautiful dream in his beautiful field away from all the idiots.

The man before him was dressed in a blue suit with a lightweight white chest pad. He wore the mask of a raccoon that hid his face, but Akira was still able to identify him as his former squad leader.

"Get up. We got the new recruits coming in today. We need everyone there for the ceremonies."

Akira rolled his eyes and turned back into bed. "Give them a pat on the back and my best regards."

He hadn't had his eyes closed again for two seconds before he felt a rope slung around his neck and was yanked by the neck tumbling off the bed. He quickly sat up on the floor grasping his neck and coughing. He shot the ANBU captain a dirty look.

"That hurt Goddamn it!"

The captain firmly placed a boot against Akira's chest and kicked him back down. "Well then, maybe next time you'll get up when you're told. Now go get ready, the recruits are waiting." With that, the captain went out the door, slamming it as he went.

"WOULDN'T WANT TO MISS THE CHANCE TO WARN THEM NOW WOULD I?!" Akira shouted through the closed door, though he doubted the captain had heard him. He dragged himself up, rather slowly, using his bed as a support and stumbled his way over to a hook on the wall holding his ANBU uniform. The same blue and white suit every ANBU member wore and a unique mask in the shape of a fox; with narrow slits for eyeholes and yellow in color. It was one of the only masks in the ANBU squad that was full in color. Akira yanked them off the wall and made his way over to the door that lead to the bathroom, grabbing his equipment off his desk on the way.

ANBU members didn't share rooms. But they did have the rooms connected. Each room had a bed and a desk, and a door that led to the bathroom. The bathroom had to doors, each door led into one of the rooms. So anyone using the bathrooms would have to lock both doors.  
Well.  
They didn't have to.  
But it would be rather akward...

Each rooms setup was exactly the same; save minor things like personal belongings of each member. The only difference were the setup was reversed for each room. The room on the right would have it's bed set up on the right wall, with the desk next to it, then the door to the bathroom. The other room from it's bathroom door would have the desk up next and it's bed set up on the left wall.

Akira locked both the doors to the bathroom and threw his clothes on the toilet seat cover. Still somewhat asleep, he opened the cabinet above the sink and grabbed his effects; toothbrush, toothpaste and deoderant. As he was closing the cabinet, he caught a glimps of his face in the reflection of the mirror on the other side. He had a red rope burn from his wake up call around his neck, and he saw his mis-matched eyes staring back at him. He hated those eyes. The only good thing about being an ANBU was the mask. He slammed the cabinet shut with force and turned away in disgust.

He quickly got himself freshened up and dressed, leaving a mess of his stuff in the bathroom. He wasn't worried about complaints; the room across from his was empty anyways.

He quickly stepped out into the hallway, taking a look at a few of the late last-second ANBU like himself as they hurried to get to the training room; which doubled as their auditorium for certain occassions like this.

Taking his place behind a pair of ANBU "roomates", Akira quickly adjusted his mask to fit his face. The eye slits were adjusted so he could see properly, and with his eyes hidden from view Akira no longer had that kind of "naked" feeling.

Akira followed in line until they reached the training room. Most of the ANBU were already there; chatting away with others since there was no authority figure around yet. And some of the others were either silently training to themselves in one way or another and others still were by themselves, leaning against a wall or hiding away in a dark corner. Those loner type ninjas.

Akira himself didn't do much of anything. He stood in the middle of the room patiently awaiting the beginning of the ceremony. The sooner it started, the sooner it ended and the sooner he could go back to sleep. Granted he wasn't called in for a mission. Lord knows he was due for one. It had been two weeks since his last; which is really long for an ANBU member. Akira honestly didn't know what was worse: dealing with people on missions or dealing with people at the base.

Thinking on it; he silently figured dealing with people on missions was better.

At least he was allowed to kill those people.

He heard a sudden banging noise from behind him and spun around to see Godaime Hokage walking in, with two captains on either side of her (one being the one who woke him up).

Trailing behind them was five people in ANBU suits, minus the masks. The new recruits.

Tsunade was escorted to the back of the room by the two ANBU captains as everyone quickly stepped into formation.

Akira's mask hid the sight of his rolling eyes. Tsunade was the biggest joke of a Hokage he could imagine. She gambled more than she worked, and was often found sleeping on the job. Maybe she had the villages best interest in mind, but Akira had a hard time finding her as a respectful authority figure.

Well, he lacked respect for any authority figure, really.

The only reason he figured she became Hokage is because she was once one of the "great three sanin."

Wow, what great sanin he figured. An old pervert, a gambler in denial and a snake fetish. Whoppee.

He quickly snapped to attention once the Hokage started speaking.

"As you all well know by now, we can expect nothing but excellence from our ANBU Military operatives. There is no proccess required to become an ANBU, because no one can choose to become one. As you all once were, so these new recruits also were chosen due to their excellence in operation in the village. And as we have with you, we also expect nothing but perfection from these new recruits; something that comes with time."

Tsunade paused for a moment with a sad look across her face. "For the past four years, our village has been struggling to rebuild since our Day of Reckoning. So the time required to build up to our levels of expection from new recruits has been lowered. That is why we ask of you so much to help these new ANBU operatives to grow and flourish into proud ANBU leaders."

Tsunade looked as she would continue, but one of the captains cut in front of her, whispering something to her. Tsunade nodded and stepped back.

The captain straightened up and looked ahead. "As you all well know, we've had to make breaks in tradition in the past comings of recruits to help with efficiency in training. As it has been the last few times, each of the new recruits will be assigned to a senior ANBU operative who will help overlook their training regimin and growth in the ANBU Military Squad."

Akira took a look at the "promising" new recuits, who were lined up behind the captain. For the most part, they were collected and at perfect attention. But one of them seemed somewhat nervous. An anxious look was across her face, and she quickly brushed a pink strand of hair out of her eyes.

"We will now assign each of the new recruits their number designation, and the number of the ANBU personel they are to be assigned to. When you hear your number called, please raise your hand; and the recruit will make their way over to you. You are to show them to their new room; adjecent to yours, as soon as this meeting is over." The captain continued.

Akira toned out. He could remember back two years ago, when he was going through this. He still remembered the bad vibe feeling he got once he stepped into the room. He really wished he had acted on it back then.

The only good thing he could remember when he first joined was his instructor; Mitarashi Anko. She had been a former ANBU, but rejoined the service during the rebuilding stage of the village. That is, she had; until she disappeared. No one really knew where she went or what happened to her.

Well, mostly no one.

Akira knew. Or thought he did. He was sure she went chasing after Orochimaru. She had been talking about him a lot before she left.

The captains booming voice interupted his thoughts; "Recruit number four: Haruno Sakura. Your number designation is 073, and you will be assigned to... number 521."

Wait... number 521? That's me!

-----------------

End notes: Okay, I know that Sakura being designated to Akira was probably expected. But still...errr...yeah and stuff.  
I'll post allusions at the beginning of chapter 2. If anyone feels like pointing out any allusions they found, go ahead and see if you're right. Though I can say since it's only the first chapter, don't expect many.  
Like I said earlier; constructive criticism is not only welcomed but encouraged. Even if it's just a small thing, let me know to help me improve. And if I fucked the whole thing up, let me know so I can re-vamp it before I write more. So... read and review please...and stuff...yeah... 


	2. Chapter II

-  
Allusions: Chapter I

Akira's Fox Mask: The description of it is the same of the Keatons Mask from the Legend of Zelda Series Akira's Birthday: Pretty obvious; Friday the 13th is the day of bad luck Akira's Number, 521: I would be majorly suprised if anyone knew this; but his number designation is my birthday; 521 - 5/21 - May 21st. Just a little tidbit there )  
Konoha's "Day of Reckoning": A cheap playoff of the name of the game "WWE Day of Reckoning". Yeah, I was low on ideas at the time ;  
-----------------

Chapter II

Akira quickly stepped forward at the mention of his number designation; 521.

"W-wait, you can't do that!" he shouted, a bit before thinking.

Every head in the room turned towards him.

"#521, is there a problem here?" The captain asked, in that treading-on-thin-ice kind of voice.

"I thought these recruits were supposed to be assigned to 'senior' members! I've only been here for two years! And I don't have time to watch over-"

The captain cut him off; "Two years is more than enough experiance to train someone, 521. And you would be best to remember your place among our ranks." The captain turned his head to motion behind him. "Besides, this is a direct order from Hokage-Sama herself. Not only is this my order, it is hers."

Akira turned his attention to Tsunade, who had a somewhat amused smile on her face. The recruit, 073, also turned her head towards her as well. Akira was just about to object to the Hokage's decision when Tsunade talked first.

"Before you say anything, I have my reasons for signing Sakura under your name." she said in a stern voice, "Foremost is the fact that your special "abilities" are best matched up with hers. It is in your best interest to have her with you."

Akira turned his head away at the mention of his advanced bloodline trait. The members of his clan had the ability to control blood bled from their own bodies; cutting themselves to release the blood, they could change its shape and form to perform various attacks or even hold their opponent down, then return the blood back into their body. The only limit to this was if they were to release too much blood. With training, memebers of the Yodamni clan could release near all of the blood in their bodies, but Akira hadn't quite reached that level yet.

"Whether you like it or not, you are now in charge of the training of #073." the captains voice interupted Akira's thoughts. Akira just scoffed and looked away. The captain motioned for Sakura to walk over to Akira.

"This must be why they had me move into my new room recently..." he thought to himself.

Sakura slowly walked over to her new instructor. She felt someone uneasy about him; and his little outburst there did little to make her feel any better. She couldn't get a good look at his face; obviously due to the mask. All she could tell about his features was his long white hair that fell in just past his waist. It was tied into a ponytail in the back. And he had a long, thin katana hanging slanted on his back. He didn't look at her as she stepped into place beside him. Or at least it didn't seem so. From beneath the mask, Akira was measuring up this girl he would have to show the ropes to.

She was around 5' 3", 5' 4" by Akira's guess. Her hair was shoulder length and a rather bright shade of pink, And he saw that she did have a mask, but it was hanging from a string around her neck; it banged against her back as she had walked up to him. Her eyes were a radiant green; Akira envied them. Much more beautiful then his.

The captain had already announced the final recruit and designation, and now Tsunade was talking again. She sounded like she was trying to speed things up. After all, the Hokage had plenty of "important meetings". Probably with Mr. Drinc and Mrs. Caurdtabel, Akira figured. The moment the Hokage finished her little speach, Akira had turned away and was heading for the door.

Somewhat confused at his sudden departure, Sakura quickly ran in behind Akira, catching him just as he went through the door. "You don't seem like a guy of patience." she mentioned. "Oh, believe me; this isn't the place to slack off." Akira replied coldly, "I'm your 'instructor', right? Let me give you your first piece of advice; wake up, shut up, obey orders, sleep and repeat. Do as you're told, and you won't have a captain on your ass and a bruise on your neck."

Sakura wondered if that had something to do with the red mark around Akira's neck. "Is it that bad here?" she asked nervously. Akira rolled his eyes. "As long as you don't draw attention to yourself, you'll be fine. The last thing you want is for everyone to know who you are."

"Why?" Sakura asked.

"Bad case scenario; punishment. Good case scenario: court marshalled."

"That's a good thing?"

"Means you won't have to stick around here anymore."

"You don't seem to fancy this place much."

Akira stopped at the door to the room next to his and removed his mask, turning his head to look Sakura in the eye. Sakura tried to keep a suprised look off her face, but Akira could see her reaction. "No, I don't. Quite honestly, this is all a big waste of time. Working for asshole captains for a dying village..."

He opened the door and motioned inside. Sakura stepped in, surveying her surroundings.

"Welcome to your new home." he said dryly.

Sakura turned back to him. "They didn't bring my stuff here?"

Akira laughed somewhat stiffly. "You don't have any stuff. Not anymore. You're no longer... what was your name?"

"Sakura. Haruno Sakura."

"You're no longer Haruno Sakura. Now you're just #073." Akira pointed over to the wall. "You have an extra uniform there. They'll probably give you a third. Bathroom is over there. Lock both doors, unless you want to risk me walking in on you. I'll give you some time to let it all sink in. I'm in the room next to yours, by the way."

Akira turned to leave.

"Wait." Sakura put her hand on his shoulder. He turned his head to look over his shoulder.

"I never got your name."

"521."

"No, not your number; your name."

"I told you; we don't have names anymore..." Akira hesitated for a moment. "Akira. Yodamni Akira."

"Nice to meet you."

Akira didn't reply. He just stepped out the door, closing it behind him.

Sakura sat down on her new bed, absorbing all of it in. It certainly didn't feel like a new home. She didn't get that "new home" excitment feeling. She didn't think being an ANBU would be easy; since being a ninja was already hard enough. But Akira's attitude about the place didn't exactly inspire her with confidence.

Moments later, as she was exploring the draws of her new desk, a thought hit her; If Akira dispised this place so much, then why has he stayed so long?

-----------------

End notes: Not much to say really. Obviously Akira is pretty pessismistic about being an ANBU. As you may have noticed, the ANBU is a pretty harsh squad to be in. I'm kinda going for that "Kill or be killed" feeling for it; cause I imagine being in a squad that did a villages highest priority missions would be a pretty tough enviorment. Like they said; they can only expect perfection from everybody. 


	3. Chapter III

-----------------  
Allusions Chapter II 

Akira's Blood Ability: Akira's ability to manipulate his blood is similar to that of Sheldon from the Apostles of the Stars (Black Cat Manga)  
Not actually based of any said thing, but I'm pretty sure a number designation system has been used in plenty of other stories or movies or something.  
-----------------

Sakura erased the thought from her mind; it wasn't any of her business anyways.

The drawers didn't hold much. One held notebooks and pencils while another held the ANBU guidebook. Sakura took this and tossed on the bed; she'd have to read it later.

Moving away from the desk, Sakura went to where her extra uniform was hanging on the wall. On closer inspection she found that she had two extra uniforms; the extra pair underneath the other. Supposedly the soldiers were in charge of their own laundry.

Other than the bed and desk, there wasn't much else in the room. And Akira said they weren't allowed to have their own personal belongings with them. Sakura sighed. This place can never be home...

She turned to her bed and grabbed the mask that hung behind her, looking at it as almost face to face. It was in the shape of a hawk, with red and white markings on it. She was told the masks were to hide their idenity, but Sakura was beginning to fear she would lose hers.

Akira was in his room when he heard the knock on his door. His attention drifted away from the blood that floated in front of his face and to the door.

"Aki-uh, 521?" he heard a voice call.

Akira sighed. "Go back to your room. I'll be there in five minutes."

"Umm, sure..." the voice replied.

Akira pushed himself off the bed and walked over to where his equipment was. The blood trailed behind him, looking almost like rope hanging from his hand. It was seeping out of a self-made cut from his left palm. He grabbed his kunai and shuriken holders and adjusted them to his belt, and fitted the mask to the side of his belt. He extended his arm, and the blood trailing from it hovered in the air and moved to the other side of the room, where it lifted up his sword and brought it back to him, fitting it to his back. During this, Akira grabbed a bandage and began to fit it to his palm. The blood quickly seeped back into the wound and he patched it up as he headed outside.

Sakura quickly turned her head as she heard the door open. It was Akira, but Sakura couldn't help but think that he could have knocked first.

"Come on." he said, motioning for her to follow him outside. She nodded and pushed herself off her bed and in line behind him.

Sakura had to step pretty quick to keep up with Akira. He seemed to be in a hurry. "Not very paitent, are you?" she asked.

"I have plenty of paitence. I just don't like waiting."

"Paitence and waiting go hand in hand."

"And for me, they constantly fight with each other."

"That seems like it'd be a sign of impaitence."

"Maybe it is. Maybe not." Akira stopped in front of a door, "Here; it won't matter. You'll learn to be impaitent, because everyone else here is impaitent. Always be five minutes early, or else you might as well not show up at all."

Sakura waited for him to continue, then finally asked "Why not?"

"Not something you want to hear I think." He turned to face her. "This isn't the place to slip up, or make a mistake. Since the attack, punishment due to failure has increased. A lot."

"Was it bad before?"

"Not entirely. Failure was punishable, but it wasn't as harsh since the village was in an age of prosperity. But now, failure in a mission is bringing you to an inch of your life. Depending on the level."

"Level?"

"Sentences are done by level, depending on the important of the mission. Unless your mission was Triple S level. Then you just get marked..."

"Marked? What's that?"

Akira rubbed his eyes almost wearily. "Nothing. Forget I mentioned it. Come on." he opened the door they stood in front of, "I'll start by showing you around..."

-----------------

End notes: I know, short chapter; I'm sorry. I'm working on another fic I plan to put up soon as well, so I had to make this a little shorter. The next chapter will be longer; I promise, with a bit more action in it. Hope you all enjoyed ;)

Also: There aren't any purposeful allusions in this chapter, so Chapter IV won't have allusions as the start

-----------------


	4. Chapter IV

The banging on his door was the first bad sign. There was two. 

The second was the voice that yelled; "Roll call in ten minutes sharp, be there for assignment!"

"Shit..."

Akira was truly torn. On one hand, an assignment could be his ticket to avoid this place for a few days and blow off some steam. On the other hand, he _really_ didn't feel like getting up. Was it truly worth it?

Eventually he got out of bed. It was more of a fear of dealing with the captain for not showing up. Again.

It didn't take long for Akira to locate his uniform in the darkness, and shorter to put it all together. He only dashed into the bathroom to brush his teeth. He didn't waste time on his hair; only grabbing a rubber band as he left.

He closed his door with his foot, head bent down as he fitted his hair into a ponytail. He heard a shuffling noise and saw Sakura waiting against the wall for him.

"Good morning Akira." she said sweetly.

"It's 521. There isn't an Akira here." he replied in a cold, dragged out voice. It was pretty clear he wasn't fully awake.

"Not much of a morning person, are we?"

Akira sighed. "Only when I'm awake for them."

Sakura chuckled and waited for Akira to lead the way. Even after the previous days tour, she still wasn't entirely aquainted to the place. As they walked, Akira was clearly having trouble fixing his mask to his face.

"Look, here." Sakura pulled him off to the side and squared him in front of her. She fit the mask in place and wrapped her arms around his neck to tie off the string.

Akira mumbled something close to a "thanks."

At least, Sakura thought that's what it was.

"You may want to put yours on now." Akira mentioned as they started back off, "You'll get in trouble if you don't wear it to any and all meetings."

Sakura nodded and grabbed hers from her belt, putting it on as Akira opened the door. He held the door open for her, which was the closest sign of kindness she had seen from him.

Inside a little over a dozen ANBU were already ready and waiting. A small team of captains stood in a corner going over papers and discussing something Akira couldn't hear. Most likely than not they were deciding who to send on which mission. Akira stretched out his arms and yawned. Thinking more clearly, he doubted he'd get a mission since he was supposed to be "training" the "promising new recruit". So why the hell did they have to wake him up? Out of the boredom of waiting, he pulled out a kunai and slit his arm, playing around with the blood until the meeting started.

Sakura watched in horror as Akira cut himself across the arm, then in fasination as the blood lifted from the wound and started dancing around in the air. Soon the blood split in half; one formed into a kunai shape which Akira spun around his finger like a real kunai, and the other also split and formed to miniture swords that began to duel each other. Sakura looked to Akira, wondering if he was the one controlling this. Considering he didn't come off as surprised, she guessed he was. She looked back at the blood. It was almost hypnotic watching the shapeless liquid form into different objects and shapes before her eyes. She wondered if this was the reason for the bandage on his hand he still had from the other day.

"Would everyone stop screwing around and stand at attention?" a voice called out from the front. Instantly the blood stopped its movement and reformed, moving back into the wound it came from. This intrigued Sakura further. The cut was still open, but no blood bled from the wound. _Was he stopping it from flowing out?_

"The Godaime Hokage has given us a list of S rank missions to be accomplished as soon as possible. Some of them are somewhat less than what we are used to, but due to the lack of militaristic force in Konoha, we have no choice but to shoulder these burdens for them."

The captain drew out the mission sheets with a small flourish. "As always, failure with _not_ be tolerated. But anyone who fails a mission of the lower S rank _will_ be marked."

There was that term again. Sakura was dying with curiosity as to what being marked meant. She looked over at Akira. She couldn't see beyond the mask, but the mention of being marked had caused him to hang his head a bit to the side.

The captain was now walking down the rows of ANBU that were lined up. He didn't wear a mask, and his face was grim and scarred from past battles. He didn't look like the type to say a bad word around. "746, you are to escort the council to..." Sakura watched as he stopped in front of certain members and have a short explaination of each mission. He then handed the ANBU the paper with the mission details on it, which the ANBU looked over for a moment before it burst into flames in his hand; pressumably to prevent information leaks.

Sakura continued watching until the captain had only one piece of paper left, and he stopped in front of...

"#521, you and 073 are to carry out an assassination on this target." The captain handed over the paper. Akira took it, if somewhat slowly."

"What do you mean me and 073?" he asked.

"Goddamnit 521, how many fucking meanings _could_ it have? You're both assigned to this mission!"

"Wait, 073 is still too new here. I'd have a higher rate of success on my own."

"This is _not_ debatable 521. This was a direct request from Hokage-sama herself."

Akira sighed. "Why can't that bitch stay out of my life?" he muttered.

Sakura gasped as the captain struck Akira across the face, causing his mask to fly across the room. Akira slowly turned his head back. His face was clear of any emotion, but you could clearly see the anger burning in his eyes.

"You are _not_ to refer to the Hokage in such away. And under no means are you to refuse her orders or my own. Now I suggest you go get ready before I make you."

Akira looked like he wanted to do something, but he just turned away and walked over to where his mask hit the floor. He picked it up before turning to Sakura.

"I'll meet you in front of my room. Be there once you're ready to leave." his voice sounded even colder than from earlier. Sakura only managed a nod before he left.

Curiosity got the better of her, and Sakura stopped one of the other ANBU from leaving the room. "What does it mean to get 'marked'?" she asked in a hushed voice.

"Heh, not something I ever want to have on me. Not like Akira." the ANBU replied.

"Akira? He's marked?"

"Yup. He had a mission about a year ago to assassinate a lord from Sunagakure. Basic mission, but Akira had problems with it. The mission was actually a request from the Kazekage; they couldn't kill the lord, or else a civil war would erupt. The Hokage was real reluctant to accept. But the fact that the Kazekage had asked was kept from Akira, for whatever reason. Akira didn't feel it was right to kill the lord from an allied country. Naturally, the captain had problems with this."

"What happened?"

"Well, Akira managed to single-handedly sneak into the lords mansion, past all the guards and traps. He got into the lords room, right where he wanted him with his sword ready for the kill."

"And?"

"And that was it. Akira never killed him. He said he couldn't. The lord was having dinner with his wife and children at the time. I guess Akira couldn't hardened his heart to kill the guy in that situation."

"And the captain marked him?"

"The captain was furious. Akira is lucky to still be alive. If we hadn't had another soldier assassinate the lord afterwards, Sunagakure could have been pulled into war anyhow."

"But what is being marked?"

"You've seen Akira's eyes, right?"

"Of course."

"When you get marked, the captain does something to one of your eyes. It causes the eye to turn red. When you're marked, the captain always knows where you are. He can sense it, I guess. Through this he can punish the subjects body at any time he wants. Mess with the nerves in the body. Cause any part of the body to stop functioning, or to feel imense pain at any time the captain pleases."

"That's...horrible..."

"I know. What's even worse is since the captain has access to the subjects nerves is that he can make said subject do whatever he wants them to do at any time as well. I guess to assure the subject doesn't fail again."

Sakura was silent.

"I would imagine the worse part is living with the knowledge." the ANBU continued, "Living having to know that at any time you could be hurt, or stop moving or be controlled. Never knowing when it could happen."

"How awful..."

The ANBU shrugged. "All the reason more not to disobey orders I suppose." With that, the ANBU continued to leave the room; leaving Sakura as the only one left. Maybe this was why Akira was so pessismistic, so hateful of the ANBU. She couldn't imagine how horrible it had to be to live like that.

Akira waited in front of his door for quite a bit longer than he thought it should take before he saw Sakura coming to him from around the corner. "About time you got he-"

He was cut off when Sakura grabbed his arm without speaking, taking off the bandages around his palm and the new ones around his arm.

"W-What are you doing?" he asked.

Sakura didn't anwser, but instead ran her hand over the cuts. With a small glowing light, Akira watched in amazement as the wounds began to close up; healing before his very eyes.

"I'm sorry, Akira."

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End notes: Okay, I know I said there'd be action in this chapter and there isn't; I'm sorry. But they have an assassination mission; that'll have to be exciting. That's killing people, right?

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	5. Chapter V

A/N: Okay this took a long time to get up. I've been busy with work and school and all that "happy" shit. Between dealing with an idiot superviser and a back order of undone school work, I had to carefully pick the times I wrote this chapter. But it's a relatively long one that will hopefully keep you all occupied for a short while. Enjoy! 

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Allusions Chapter IV Didn't realize this until after I wrote it, but the moment where Akira couldn't kill the guy on his mission due to the family being there reminded me of when Train Heartnet (Black Cat again) couldn't kill his target cause the guys daughter was with him. Maybe I need to read a new manga lol  
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"Is this it?" Sakura asked in a hushed voice. Akira had already made it clear to keep noise to a minimal.

"Yes it is. The estate of Lord Date Masamune." Akira pulled his cloak a little tighter around him. "I don't like this."

Actually, there were a few things Akira didn't like currently; the one he was talking about was hard to distinguish. It was a bit of the mission and a bit of how close he was standing to Sakura (not that she knew it). It made Akira a little uncomfortable, but luckily Sakura was busy surveying the mansion that stood before them. Akira kept looking forward; working on a plan to get Masamune easily. From outwards appearances, it seemed like the estate had little to offer in defense. But Akira knew better than to let his guard down. Masamune was used to having people after his head, so an attack by the ANBU wouldn't neccesarily be out of the question. Unfortunately, Sakura didn't know all this.

"Should we go on?" she asked quietly.

"No. Not yet."

"Well I highly doubt staring at the place is going to get the job done."

"I'm working on a plan."

"Care to let me in on it?"

"... No."

Sakura sighed. "That's teamwork for you."

"One; I'm not used to having a partner. Give it time to seep in." Akira turned away and started walking on the dirt path down the hill that lead up to the cliff they had been overlooking, "Two; I'm not telling you the plan because I don't have it fully worked out myself."

Sakura hurried to catch up next to him. She turned and leaned in front of him as they walked, looking up at him through her mask. "Even then, shouldn't we try to come up with the plan together?"

Akira rolled his eyes; not that Sakura could see it. "Okay, here is what I got so far; Break in, find him, hurt him with our violence."

"Impressive."

"I try."

Akira was only half listening as Sakura started rambling on about what she thought they should do. He kept his eyes to the ground. Something wasn't right.

He held up a hand, which Sakura ran into. The back side of his hand bumped her mask, jostling it to the side.

"What is it?" she asked, refitting it.

"073, when we were running here it was raining, wasn't it?" he asked.

"Obviously. That's why we needed these cloaks." she replied.

"If it was pouring rain on the way here..." he tried to speak slowly for it to click in her mind, "Then why isn't this dirt path mud?"

It didn't even take a second for Sakura to get the idea and quickly move out of the way. She leapt into the grass that was still wet and lined the dirt path. Akira, however, stayed where he was. Sakura watched as he made hand signs with impressive speed then slammed his palms into the ground. Water gushed from underneath him and flooded the area. Sakura watched as four figures shot out of the water too fast for her to catch well.

They stood in ankle deep water as they were surrounded by four rock-nin. The rock-nin were already ready to fight; three were clutching kunai and one held a katana in a battle ready position. The one with the katana made small signals to his partners; Akira assumed him to be their leader. They were wearing face clothes, so Akira couldn't identify them.

"Why would hidden rock ninja be guarding a lord from the fire country?" Sakura asked as she took a small step backwards.

"Lesson number one as an ANBU; attack first, ask questions later." Akira replied, drawing his own sword from its sheath, "I'll take the one with the katana and the guy to his right. You take the other two." Sakura nodded, but they were back to back so Akira couldn't see it. He assumed she was fine with it, and leapt towards the two rock nin.

Their leader was ready for the attack, and attack with a counter swing as Akira approached. Akira quickly blocked the moved and swung his leg around, aiming at the head. The rock nin grabbed his ankle and the other nin ran in to stab Akira. Akira twisted his body to the side, narrowly evading the attack and swung a punch at the attacking nin, hitting him square on the cheek. The nin fell back and Akira swung his blade at the leader, causing the leader to drop him to avoid the attack. Akira got to his feet and the other shinobi leapt at him. Akira did a spinning side kick, planting his foot squarely on the chest of his opponent and sending him crashing back. Akira got back into his stance just in time to block a swing from the leader.

Sakura flipped backwards to avoid an attack from above, grabbing several shuriken from her holster as she did. She spun around and flung them at the rock nin attacking her from behind. The rock nin effortlessly blocked all the uncoming shuriken and took a swing at Sakura with his kunai. Sakura caught his attacking arm and twisted it to the side, bring up her other arm for an uppercut. She focused her chakra into her fist and sent the nin flying backwards into a tree. With quick reflexes she managed to catch a kunai thrown at her from her other attacker and quickly moved in to fight.

Akira parried a blow from the leader to the side and started making signs. He lifted his mask up just as the leader recovered from the parry and blew water out of his mouth in a powerful blast that knocked the leader of his feet. His fit his mask back onto his face and spun around to his backside, swinging as he did. His blade clashed with the kunai of his other opponent. Akira brought his leg up and around, smashing the nin in the face and continued his spin with a slash toward the downed shinobi. The blade pierced the body, which quickly turned into a log. "Fuck!" Akira quickly spun around, trying to anticipate where the attacker would approach after the kawarimi no jutsu.

Sakura landed hard on her back from where her opponent kicked her down. The attacker moved in for the kill, but got a face full of mud slung at him by Sakura. The rock nin stumbled backwards as Sakura quickly got to her feet and rammed the shinobi in the ribs with her shoulder. The nin fell with the wind knocked out of him and Sakura poised over him with a kunai in hand. She looked at her opponent with hesitation, which was long enough for her other attacker to take a swing at her. She managed to duck just in time; the blade cutting through a few stray strands of hair.

Akira quickly ducked behind a tree to avoid the onslaught of incoming shuriken thrown at him. It was time he finished this. He brought his sword up and slit his left palm, the blood slowly pouring out of the fresh wound. He spun out from behind the tree and sent a gush of blood forward, dragging down one of the two oncoming attackers. The leader neatly leapt to the side before quickly dashing in for a strick at Akira's unguarded midsection. Akira quickly brought his blade up to block the sword that came inches from slicing him in half. Akira chopped the leader in the back of the neck and did one of the most effective and commonly used attack used by fighters; he hit the leader in the crotch. You do what have to.

Sakura moved in on the offensive, swinging punch after punch at her attacker in a flow of deadly hits that the rock nin desperatly tried to avoid. Her attacks came mere inches away from hitting their marks. Sakura swung an uppercut aimed at the midsection, but was suddenly pulled back. She spun around to see that the other nin had grabbed her cloak to avoid her from hitting his partner. Sakura quickly grabbed the cloak and yanked the nin towards her, punched him in the jaw as he got to her. The punch connected painfully accurate, and Sakura heard a snap as the nin was sent backwards; she broke his jaw. She pulled out a shuriken and quickly spun to toss it at her attacker she heard approaching. The attack was easily deflected, but gave Sakura plenty of time to spin around to the backside of her opponent. She wrapped her arm around the shinobi's neck and flipped him back over her and into the ground.

Akira focused his attention on the subordinate, who was desperately trying to grab at the blood that held him to the ground. The blood slowly lifted the nin up and brought him to Akira. Akira quickly stepped in front of the shinobi and neatly kicked him in the chin, send him straight up in the air. Akira leapt after him, the blood following and surrounding the waist of his opponent. Akira made an upwards swing motion, and the blood tossed the rock nin flying even further up. The blood then quickly went back around the waist of the nin and made a rope like line back to Akira, who grabbed onto it and swung downwards; slamming his tied up opponent into the ground with a sickening crash. Sakura looked over from where she stood, and imediatly wished she hadn't. She couldn't discern Akira's blood from that of his opponent; all she knew is that there was plenty of it along with other things from the human body that isn't supposed to been seen on the outside. The eyes of ther leader got wide, and he quickly dashed to the side and started running off. "Shit, you won't get away so easily!" Akira said as he dashed after the fleeing rock nin, a small pool of blood following after him.

"Akira, wait!" Sakura called, starting to run after him. But she felt a boot on her back and was sent flying forwards. She skillfully placed her hands forward and flipped herself back up to her feet, quickly grabbing a kunai and spinning it around of her finger. She spun around and leapt at her attacker, swinging in a wide arc. The shinobi caught her arm and stabbed at her with his own kunai. Sakura used her free arm to grab his arm and moved it to the side. She then viciously knee'd the shinobi in the gut with her full strength. With a grunt, the rock nin slumped forward. Sakura caught him as he fell and gently set him on the ground. She looked over her two enemies, but couldn't bring herself to kill them. She settled with tying them up and leaving the under a tree. She then turned towards the general direction she thought Akira ran off towards and hurried after, hoping to catch up with him before he got too far away.

Akira stopped running and bent over, placing his hands on his knees. He was pantly deeply, and decided to try and catch his breath before making his next move. The rock nin leader was nowhere in sight. Akira's thoughts were racing through his head as he was trying to think of who in the earth country could have ties with Lord Date Masamune of the fire country. It was possible that they were missing-nin and were simply hired for protection. Leaning against a tree, Akira pulled out his bingo book. He hadn't heard of any recent rock-nin renegades; especially those that traveled with a party, but maybe there was some old record of them. Most older missing-nins were already captured by now. He flipped through the pages, quickly scanning the affiliation of each criminal; none of them seemed to match the description of the men he just fought. With a sigh he put the book away, looking around. He was surprised to see the estate of Masamune a ways ahead. The rock nin must be returning to report us... fucking wonderful... he thought with another sigh. He pushed himself off the tree and made for the mansion, the blood slowly seeping back into its hosts body.

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End notes: So after like, five days I finally got Chapter IV up. Read and review please and stuff. Won't waste too much time here


	6. Chapter VI

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Allusions Chapter V Lord Date Masamune; Sakura and Akira's target was the name of an actual Japanese Daimyo (and my personal favorite). He took over his clan at the age of 18 and well, look him up. Interesting history .  
The reason I used his name was due to a lack of creativity at the time. I needed a Lord-like name for their target and I used his as a place keeper. In the end, I just stuck with it for a fun allusion.  
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Getting inside the mansion wasn't the problem. Akira had been through hundreds of drills on how to break into a building. Disengaging the first couple of traps wasn't the problem. Akira had a keen eye and extensive training on taking care of traps.

He current position was a problem.

Sure, you got those types of people who can hide on the ceiling by pressing their arms and legs against the rafters with such force as to keep suspending in the air long enough for the bad guys to move on. Then you got people like Akira who finds to their dismay that the ceiling has no rafters so you have to resort to chakra.

Chakra that has a slight glow.

When there are no lights on.

So now Akira found himself in a rather akward position; back to the ceiling with three confused and disgruntled looking mansion guards staring up at him. He waited for one of them to say something. Anything. Raise an alarm, say "Who are you?" or anything. Dead silence for fifteen minutes.

Which added greater tension in the air.

Eventually Akira decided that waiting for them to make the first move was really just going to waste his chakra. He fell with a flip and landed on his feet. The guards imediatly pulled out their katanas and dove for Akira.

_Now_ they reacted.

Akira ducked under the first blade and kicked out at the guard in front of him. He hand flipped over the bent over guard while pulling out a kunai and stab the guard behind him in the arm. The guard dropped his blade, but caught it with the other hand and swung it at Akira. Akira blocked the blade with his kunai and kicked the guard in the chest; sending him tumbling into another guard. The first guard ran in and took a wild swing at Akira. Akira simply spun out of the way, wrapped his arms around the guard's head and with one swift motion snapped his neck. The crack echoed through the room as the body hit the floor with a sickening thud. These guard's weren't well trained; Akira decided to keep one alive.

And only one. It took a small ammount of pressure to reopen the wound on his hand to allow to blood to flow out. He dodged another attack from one of the guards and sent his blood down the guard's throat. The guard imediatly dropped his katana and grasped at his throat in vain. Akira ignored his grunts and chokes and calmly walked up to the last guard. The poor guard looked completely freaked out. Good.

Akira let more blood spill from his hand. He leaned against the wall with his arms crossed and allowed his blood to grasp around the guard's neck and slowly lift him into the air, choking him in the process. The other guard fell to his knees, still trying to cough out the blood that Akira kept forced down his throat. He kept his attention on the hanging guard.

"Beautiful place you have here. Hospitality _sucks_, but the carpet is very pretty." Akira said, watching the guard struggle pointlessly in the air, "I'm actually looking for a place just like this; thought I might make the owner an offer. Know where I can find him?"

The guard tried to choke out words, so Akira loosened the grip a little bit.

"I-... I don't k-know... He... I..." the guard stuttered out.

Behind the mask, Akira eyes were like slits as he increased the grip with the blood.

"No! He...ack!" the guard was now coughing up blood of his own. In the backround, the other guard fell down with a thud; blank eyes staring into the floor.

Akira dropped the guard he was holding. The guard coughed hard and leaned over the floor on his hands and knees. Akira stepped forward and cut a kick across the mans face, sending him back a few feet. The blood moved over to the fallen form and lifted the guard from the floor over to Akira; face-to-face.

"Where is Masamune?" all form of fake pleasantry had left Akira's voice by now.

"He's... he's on the top floor... that's his family room..."

"Good. That wasn't so bad, was it?" Akira said with a smile behind the mask. There was a snap and the guard's body hit the floor. Akira had used the blood to snap his neck. He stepped over the fallen body and held up his hand to let the blood seep back in.

"That was for revealing the location of your master to his killer."

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Sakura hit the ground beneath her with an annoyed grunt. Not only did she have no idea where she was going, but Akira could aparently run rather fast. And now she had no idea where she was, where Akira was or which direction the mansion was in.

She tried to calm herself down. She would go about this logically. Assuming that Akira was running after someone who was in leagues with their target, she should be somewhat closer to the mansion. When they were overlooking the mansion, they were facing east. Then they turned around to walk away; west. Then they had just started to turn before they got into the fight; north-west. If she had been running east, that meant she just had to go a little forward, and south. She got back to her feet and straighted herself up with a sigh. Sadly she knew that her best bet would be to continue running. For all she knew, Akira was taking on the whole mansion by himself.

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Although it was a cliche'd line he mentioned to an opponent, Akira had to admit it _was_ a rather beautiful mansion. The floors were either the finest of carpets or neatly polished and shined, and the ceiling had exquisite chandiliers hanging from them. Rare and beautiful paintings hung from the walls and masterfully crafted vases and weaponary decorated the interior.

And trail of blood that Akira was adding seemed to liven it up a bit.

All the guards he ran into weren't much better than the first three he fought. But surprising to him; they didn't seem aware of his presence. He thought that the shinobi he fought earlier had headed into the mansion. Hell, maybe he had, but wasn't in leagues with Masamune. Did he have the same purpose of the ANBU? Or there was the possibility that he ducked inside to hide from Akira... but that would be a rather risky move.

Akira decided not to dwell on it. Either way, he had a mission to complete. He would have to worry about a third party afterwards.

Akira walked up to a wall and pressed her ear against it. He then lightly tapped the wall with his knuckles. He got the sound he was looking for.

He quickly performed some quick hand seals and his body morphed through the wall in an almost liquid like form, bringing him into the other side. The surprised looks on the dozen or so guards on the other side told Akira that he should have listened harder to make sure no one else was in the room.

He shrugged and pulled out his katana. No use dwelling on that now...

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It took a while, but Sakura managed to find the mansion. And the open door with a picked look. Aparently Akira didn't care enough to close it behind him. Just a little conspicious... but then again, he seemed to be in a hurry... just a little bit of an understatement.

Sakura figured he didn't get the chance to close the door when she saw three bodies littered on the floor. Aparently he had done a neat job, since only one of them had blood on them. Though she had to admit, the akward position of the necks on two of them were rather uncomforting. She tore her gaze away from their blank eyes and cautiously continued down the hall; naturally not entirely knowing which way to go.

Her cautiousness was probably not necessary. Nor was the feeling of being lost. Really all she had to do was follow the bloody trail of corpses Akira had left in his wake. Couldn't he have killed them like the first three? Judging by the wounds, Akira had fought with his katana. Half the bodies were sprawled out with stabs and slash wounds, and the others all had the same tell-tale signs of the snapped neck that aparently Akira was fond of doing. She would have to assume Akira was in a hurry as not to dispose of the bodies. Normally an ANBU would be more cautious as to not cause a scene. So either Akira had bad luck, or a bad temper.

Sakura leaned against a wall and peeked around using a mirror. When she was sure it was clear, she stepped around the corner and headed for the door at the end. As she walked, she removed her mask for a moment and wiped her forehead of sweat. She was nervous as hell. It's not like she hadn't done missions before. She had plenty of those as a genin and chuunin. It wasn't like an assassination mission was the problem. Been there done that. Maybe it was working with a partner again. She hadn't worked with anyone since Team 7... and Akira was a rather... interesting person to be teamed with. She could understand why he may have been somewhat against the ANBU, but he seemed like he had a chip on his shoulder. He seemed somewhat... far away when they had been training. He was a great fighter; no denying that. She struggled to land a hit on him, and he didn't seem to be paying much attention. She'd hate to have to see him fight at full strength. But besides letting her know what to do next, he didn't seem to care whether or not she was training at all. The whole time he looked like his mind was somewhere else.

A little recognition would have been nice.

Sakura sighed before deciding to put the mask back on. It was halfway to her face before she heard the noise behind her.

It was an odd noise; almost like a groan or grunt, but longer and drawn out. It was deep, and the sound of it sent shivers down Sakura's spine. She turned around as she heard the groaning shuffle closer, and couldn't really begin to comprehend what she saw. Her hand slowly released the mask it held.

It was sort of like a man. Sort of. And he sort of had a face. Sort of. And he sort of seemed alive.

Sort of.

But his face was horribly decayed; his skin was pale and murky and peeling in places. There was a great open gash over one eye that had dried blood around it and revealed his skull beneath the skin. His eyes were completely blank; pure white, no iris. He clothes were ragged and tattered with various blood stains on them, and the blood dripping from his mouth didn't help to fill Sakura with confidence.

All she could manage were a couple of steps backwards. The man slowly stumbled towards her; arms stretched out and groaning that deep, sickening groan. Sakura kept backing up until her back hit the door behind her. She quickly turned around and tried desperatly to open the door, but it was locked tightly and wouldn't be opened. If Sakura had a clearer head, she would of picked the lock; but fear more than rational thinking had control of her now. She turned around just as the man lurched at her, wrapping its decayed arms around Sakura's neck; eyes shining as he quickly moved in to feast on his prey.

Out of pure reflex, Sakura managed to pull out a kunai and bring it up and into the mans skull seconds before his teeth ripped into her neck. The man grunted loadly and the second of hesitation from him was enough for Sakura to push him down and off his feet.

The man hit the ground with a thud, and Sakura struggled to catch her breath. Her eyes widdened as the man started to get back up slowly.

The man lurched at her from his position on the ground and grabbed her from her legs. Sakura let out a quick scream and lifted up one of her legs, pulling it free and bringing it down with her full strength on the mans head. The head fell apart as easy as a rotten melon, and the sound did nothing to alleviate Sakura nausea. She leaned against the door in horror, holding back the urge to vomit.

It seemed like forever before Sakura decided to push herself off of the wall and wal over to where she had dropped her mask. She tried her best to keep her eyes off of... whatever the hell that thing was.

The mask that had seemed so stiffling just a few moments ago now made Sakura feel more safe and secure with it back around her face. With a bit of confidence restored, she walked over to the door, being careful to avoid the corpse of that thing, and pulled out a simple little tool that shinobi used to unlock doors. It took only a second and a click before the door was open. Sakura put the tool away before stepping into the dark room, daring a final glance back at the fallen form in the past hall.

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Akira slowly crept up towards the door with utmost caution. A quick peek out the window earlier had revealed that he was indeed on the top floor. And the only room there was just ahead; with double sliding paper doors designed with elegant dragons in battle. Seemed proper for such a battle hungry clan like that Date clan.

He listened intently, trying for any sound signifying that he was truly in there. Oh, there were people in there. Sounded like a little get together.

Akira sighed. Elimination of all witnesses could be a pain. Truly.

Akira quickly slid around, spinning a kunai around his finger. Rather than open the door, he simply jumped through the flimsy paper and spun a kick around at the first figure he saw.

He turned his head around to see his current predicament, and see who he had sent crashing into the wall.

His eyes saw a surprised Date Masamune, his wife and child with fear in their eyes, and their other child lying against the wall and not moving.

Akira's heart skipped.

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End notes: Wow, took me a long time to update, eh? I've been busy with so much shit as of late... erg.  
So you know, please read and review. I'll try to update more often. I don't have much work this week, so I can write more easily


	7. Chapter VII

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Allusions Chapter VI Okay, there is an allusion from chapter VI, but to save the plot I won't mention it here. But players of the series it's from know what it is )  
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Akira quickly tried to clear his head as best as possible. He had a target and an assignment. To kill as an ANBU was to kill your heart, to hesitate is to die, apathy is death, to admit defeat is to die, to fail a mission is to admit defeat, apathy is death, to hesitate is to die, to be clouded by emotion is to be clouded by failure, to kill as an ANBU was to kill your heart, a target is a number not a being, apathy is death, apathy is death...

No matter how many times Akira ran these ANBU proverbs through his head, he couldn't shake the horrible feeling.

In Akira's hesitation, Masamune's wife and child ran to the kid Akira had knocked across the room, and Masamune reached for a whistle he had tied around his neck and gave it a sharp blow. Barely a second after the sharp ring was heard, a rock nin burst in through the window to Masamune's side; the same one Akira had been fighting earlier. Masamune yelled something to the shinobi, but Akira's head was still swirling a bit and he couldn't make it out. He quickly twirled his kunai around his finger and threw it at the hidden rock shinobi. The shinobi leapt to the ceiling out of the way, and leapt down at Akira.

Well... at least Akira wasn't distracted now... as much...

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Sakura stumbled down the halls, somewhat lacking grace. Her head still wasn't at it's top after seeing... whatever it was she saw. The only thing that cleared her thoughts was a loud piercing whistle that rang throughout the halls of the mansion.

She quickly snapped to attention and pulled out a kunai at lightning speed, ready to fend off whatever was about to attack her. She stood in battle ready position for a few moments before sighing and returning her kunai to it's carrier. She took a deep breath and tried to calm herself down. Panicking and stumbling wasn't going to help her. She had to forget about... whatever it was and focus on the here and now.

Chances are that whistle was one of two things; an alarm or a warning. For it to be a warning, that would mean an enemy would have had to be left alive to blow a whistle. All enemies had been killed as of so far, so that was out of the equation. Which meant it was an alarm; sounded at first sight of an enemy before engaging combat. And since Sakura wasn't around any enemies in her current position, that meant they must hace discovered Akira. And Akira had gotten there before her, so he was probably much closer to the target.

So to navagate through this giant mansion and find her target, she should just heard towards the source of the whistle.

Which was straight up.

Sakura tightened her gloves and prepared to gather the chakra necessary to burst through. With a deep breath, she leapt towards the wall and kicked off towards the ceiling. With excellent precision and timing, she gathered a burst of chakra to her fist and swung a punch powerful enough to shatter the floor above. She then quickly grabbed the ledge with one hand and swung herself up into the room. She saw a guard just as her head passed the bottom of the floor and with reflex alone she whipped a kick as she landed, catching the guard off-guard and knocking him out cold. Sakura landed running towards the stairs she saw ahead.

Atop the stairs, she saw double doors leading to a balcony. She kicked through the glass, easily shattering it and looked up. The top of the mansion was about three floors up, and climbing would probably lead into less enemies. She quickly grabbed out two kunais, one in each hand, and started her climb up.

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Akira dodged the incoming blade from the hidden rock nin, the katana coming mere hairs away from cleaving his side. He side kicked, getting contact with the rock nins leg and buckling him down long enough for Akira to flip to the side and draw his own sword. And make a quick assesment of the situation.

If possible, he wanted to keep the fight away from the children; there was no need for useless casualties.

Well... more so useless then the trail of guards he left about below.

But his target was Masamune himself, who was currently attending to the fightened family. If Akira were to break off to assasinate him, he'd have to be quick and use the element of surprise to get away from the rock shinobi. And with that speed and surprise, it would be harder to hit the correct target or harder to make sure no one else was caught in the attack.

But the fight with the rock shinobi was wasting his time, stamina and chakra. He could possibly end it quickly with his kekkai genkai, but his enemy wasn't half too bad himself. He'd need a plan, not just to attack straight on with it.

Akira spun to the side and back handed the rock nin while successfully dodging another swing from the sword. He then spun again with a snap kick for the shinobi's head. The rock shinobi grabbed Akira's foot while Akira lifted and thrust his other foot at the nin. The rock nin caught that one too. Akira placed oth hands on the ground and flung his enemy towards the wall with his legs. The rock nin held on and flip himself right up, throwing Akira into the wall instead. Akira spun and cushioned the impact by bending his knees, and leapt from the wall towards the rock nin, taking a vicious swing. The rock nin leapt out of the way, and Akira stopped mid swing to avoid hitting any of the Date family. He landed and quickly grabbed and threw several shuriken at the rock nin, who was away from direct impact with the family. The rock nin parried them all confidently, and looked back to see Akira gone. Akira quickly moved to the side of the rock nin and swung his blade at him. The rock nin blocked the swing with his own sword, but the tip of Akira's blade still managed to make a tiny cut on the rock nins arm.

Perfect...

Akira flipped back and started quickly making hand seals. He spuns around and saw his opponents blade coming straight at him...

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Sakura stabbed her kunai into the extended beam that held the exterior balcony to the top floor. She held onto the kunai with a firm grip and placed her feet firmly against the wall and with great strength pushed her self away from the wall and successfully flipped onto the balcony. She saw through shattered glass that lead outside, and didn't like what laid beyond.

Akira was lying on the ground against the wall with blood spilt over him and one of the rock ninja's they had fought earlier. The rock nin was holding a katana covered in blood, and by the looks of it Akira had been hit twice; stabbed once and slashed across the torso. Sakura's eyes grew wide as she nearly burst into the room, but was cut off by the rock nin's words.

"So... this is the extent of strength exhibited by the fire country... disappointing..." the Rock nin said with confidence, "I would think someone from the 'elite' military squad would know better than to perform ninjutsu with their back turned." The rock nin stepped towards Akira's body, getting ready to swing the blade. "Pathetic."

The Rock nin swung, and the blade stopped mid swing. The shinobi was trembling as if some unseen force was holding the blade in place. Sakura's pace quickened, and she saw a sly smirk appear on Akira's face as he chuckled weakly.

"What?!" the Rock nin started, but was cut off.

"You're covered in blood..."

Sakura and the Rock nin watched in suprise and facination as the blood seeped from the katana and from the splatter that had covered the rock nin when he hit Akira twice. The blood all moved in the same direction; a small cut on the rock shinobi's arm. Sakura gasped as she saw Akira's blood seep into the rock nin's body.

"What are you-"

"May the demon's have mercy."

Sakura watched as the rock nin's body convulsed, then suddenly had burst of blood cutting out from the inside. Akira's blood had burst through the rock nin's body entirely.

The shinobi was dead before he hit the floor.

Sakura quickly leapt in as Akira slowly got to his feet, the blood moving off and out of the rock nin's body and slowly wrapped itself around Akira's arm as he drew his katana. He looked over at Masamune, and Sakura's gaze followed.

"You're next."

Akira walked up to the family, who was cowering in fear. They couldn't see the intent to kill in their murderers eyes.

Not that it was there.

Sakura watched as Akira stood there. And stood there. Not moving.

He's... he's not going to do it... she thought.

Underneath the mask, Akira was sweating as he held the blade firmly his hand. He knew he should swing, and he kept ordering his body to do so.

But his conscious wouldn't let him.

He spun around with a sigh.

"Get out of my sight." he said quietly.

"Akira!" Sakura called out.

Akira spun around to see Masamune had jumped up and reached for a katana. Akira's eyes widdened as he quickly dashed over to masamune.

Masamune grabbed the blade and turned just in time to see Akira right up near him. Masamune started to swing, as Akira quickly spun around and stabbed himself with his katana, the blade piercing through him and running through Masamune.

Masamune gave a short, surprised cough, and fell down as Akira pulled the blade out.

"_Akira!!_" Sakura shouted, quickly leaping over and catching his body as it fell.

Akira weakly looked over at the family, and saw the wife looking on in complete fear as the kids cried into her shoulders. He couldn't stand the sight.

He quickly got to his feet and leapt out the window.

"Akira!" Sakura called. She quickly leapt after him out the window, leaving the room in a bloody mess.

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End notes: Wow, took forever for this update, eh? Well, I have been SLAMMED with so much stuff it's not even funny.  
Anyways, hope you enjoy. Please R&R


	8. Chapter VIII

Akira laid down on the ground as Sakura quickly took off his vest and shirt to examine his wounds. Thankfully, Akira had returned all the blood to his body so the wounds were pretty clear. And judging by the wounds themselves, his opponent missed any vital points. Akira's breathing wasn't even labored. Sakura went to work on the two stab wounds and the slash across his chest.

"Please, don't ever do that again. You nearly gave me a heart attack with that suicide attack." She said sternly, but with a caring touch to her voice.

"Whatever works works. I was acting more on instinct than sense."

"Who the hell tries to stab themselves as a part of instinct?!"

"I knew I'd be fine as long as you were there to save me."

Sakura blushed slightly, but it was dark enough for Akira not to notice. They had taken their masks off already.

"Still... you should be more careful. Next time I may not be there."

"Tsk, I doubt that with godaime on my ass about you. Aparently the Gods will riot if your not in my shadow..."

"Nice."

"Nothing against you, of course."

"I'm sure." Sakura rolled her eyes as she finished up patching the wounds. The glowing chakra slowly faded as she helped Akira up into a sitting position. "How's that?"

"Better, thanks." Akira gently traced where to wounds once were. This girls talent for medical ninjutsu astounded him.

Sakura watched Akira's eyes scan his body. She hung her head slighty. "Akira... I heard about what happened... with your eye."

Akira stopped, but Sakura could feel him looking at her from the corners of his eyes.

"I-I'm sorry..." she started.

"Why should you be? You didn't do anything." he replied coldly, "This is the scar of incompitance that happens when you don't come two steps of sucking dick of your superiors. If I were you, I'd would use this as proof not to take a wrong turn."

"But... why... why didn't you carry out your assignment?" she asked.

Akira sighed and Sakura watched his gaze falter. "I couldn't do it. I just... couldn't kill a father in front of his children..."

"You're more compasionate than you come off to seem."

Akira scoffed. "Whatever. It's just... I didn't want those kids... to grow up without a father..." He sighed again, "But did it really matter? To avoid doing it before just to meet up with the situation later? And this time to..." he trailed off.

Sakura nodded. She realized how hard it must be; to get punished for something he didn't do, then end up doing it anyways. "It makes it pointless, doesn't it?"

Akira looked up. "What, the eye? I couldn't care any less. But this feeling... just makes me want to vomit."

Sakura kind of admired him; from what he says it kills him that he did it, but he didn't let it show. Didn't leak any emotions. Like a true shinobi. Sakura doubted she would be able to handle it as well.

"Akira... why... did you become an ANBU? If you hate them so much, why have you stayed?"

"Because... I love the village..." he replied softly, "I love the children of the village. The people of the village. I wanted to do anything to protect the village. To do my hand in keeping everyone safe. I used to take walks all the time and just watch the children playing in the streets." He let out a small laugh. "I was never able to have a childhood of my own. My clan was small; only three families. But one family died on a mission and their children were given off to foster families. The other did ritualistic suicide. I was an only child, so I was raised with the sole purpose of being the revival of our clan. To be the strongest link in the family. To be able to protect everyone to prevent these things from happening."

Akira brushed his hand through his hair, and the other hand absently played with his ponytail as he spoke. He was no longer speaking to Sakura; she felt he was trying to assure himself.

"I wanted to be strong enough, so no one would have to grow up worrying about the things I had to. So other children could just play like children and live like children. Children should be able to feel pain when they scrape their knees, and should be able to cry about it." Akira pulled out a kunai and slit his wrist, the blood seeping out ever so slightly before going back in. He looked at the cut with a sad smile. "They shouldn't have to worry about not feeling the pain..."

Sakura hadn't noticed that her hands had returned to Akira's exposed abdomen. Her hand subconsciously traced his chest as he spoke.

Akira scoffed, and his colder demeanor returned. "Tsk, at any rate, those feelings just weaken me. Shinobi shouldn't think such things, and if being in the ANBU prevents me from revisiting the things that spark that train of thought, I can bare with the assholes I deal with and annoying missions I have to complete."

Sakura shook her head. "No... you're a compasionate person, Akira... that's..." she started to notice how close they were, and just now notice how she had been rubbing his chest. Still knowing, she leaned in closer; her eyes never leaving his. Akira's pace quickened, and his breath nearly halted. "That's... what I like about you..." Sakura finished, moving slowly to cover the gap between them.

Akira's heart nearly stopped. She's... just like... his thoughts started to trail off as he moved his hand slowly up her side and to her neck, slowly drawing her closer.

Sakura let him draw her in, to close the last inch between them, when suddenly his eyes flashed in fear and he let out a small scream, ducking his head down and clutching at the right side of his head. "Akira?!" Sakura quickly placed her hands on his shoulders.

"Augh!" Akira let out another scream as his body started to shake violently through the cutting pain. He could barely make out Sakura's concerned voice through the throbbing in his head. "Guh... AAAHHHHH!"

Sakura quickly moved over to his side and set him down gently, and lifted his head to see what he was grabbed at. When he moved his hands, she saw blood flowing out of his red eye. This is... she thought quietly to herself. She moved her hands to his face, the hands glowing with the healing energy; not that she knew what to do. She closed her eyes, but couldn't sense any wound internal or exterior. She saw two trails of blood dripping off the side of his face, quickly flowing out of the cursed eye. Akira let out another scream. "Akira, hang in there!" she tried to sound reassuring, but her tone gave away her anxiousness. This was one wound she didn't know how to treat.

She overlooked her option. Not that she had much. She really only had one thing to do. She quickly put her mask back on, and attached Akira's to his belt. Then, she summoned the chakra to her hands, allowing her the strength to lift Akira over her shoulders, then gathered it in her legs to help her carry him. She ran off in the direction of Konohagakure; hoping her chakra wouldn't run out before she got there.

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End notes: Yay! Halfway consistant updates again! I have free time before college starts, so I'll be able to update more often. And I kinda got fired from work ;  
Anyways, thanks for reading, and reviews are always appreciated. 


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